ISnot, accompanied by Rene and Martin, with his brother Claude, went toward Chenuel's house. The two boys were walking before, and Claude and Snot some steps behind.
At a certain point Claude asked, "Are you my brother Martin's paramour?"
Snot looked at him in surprise. "Me? No, what's got into you?"
"I know that my brother goes with men... and he insisted so much I give you a hand. If he cares so much about you, I thought... sorry, I didn't want to offend you."
"No, I'm not offended. I too like men, but there is absolutely nothing with your brother, I swear."
"I can't understand you. What can you feel doing it between two males? At first I thought that for Martin it was just a game -- almost all of us, when kids, touch each other there, between friends, for fun, right? But then, he says that he tried, but that he doesn't give a shit for a girl's pussy.... and he is no more just a kid... But I say -- what can do two clappers together, if there is not a bell? They don't ring, right?"
"There are many other ways to make them ring..." Snot answered, smiling at that colourful comparison.
"It could be. I should not give a shit, after all it is his business. But I'm sorry that my brother is not like any other boy... almost any other, anyway," he corrected himself, looking at Snot. Then he asked him, "But you, did you ever try with a woman?"
"No, never."
"Ah. Then you don't know what you are missing!"
"And you, Claude, never went to bed with a man?"
"Jesus! No, never!"
"Then, you too don't know what you are missing!"
Claude looked at him knitting his eyebrows, then shrugged his shoulders and didn't persist. However, after a while, he added, "You know, after Dad and Mum died, I feel the one responsible for him. What will he do, if he doesn't find a woman? If he doesn't have his own family?"
"He will find a man, and live with him, no?"
"But what life will he have?"
"I am happy I've found my boy and I think I will have a wonderful life with him. The only important think is to find the right person."
Claude again shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. When they were in front of Chenuel's house, the two boys waited in the street while Snot and Claude went upstairs. After looking at very many stones, and after long bargaining, Snot, following Claude's advice, bought a certain number of un-mounted precious stones of different kinds and carat weights. From the irritated expression of Chenuel, Snot understood that Claude, in his judgement about the value of the stones, was really an expert. The bargain concluded, and having paid for the stones, Snot wrapped them in the cloth that had contained the gold coins, and tied it on himself, under his clothes. He went downstairs to the street, with Claude.
"Thank you, Claude. Without you I could really not manage so well. I would like to give you a stone, or if you prefer, some coins..."
Claude laughed. "Don't worry, I already paid myself," he said and showed against the light, between his index and thumb, a stone.
"You nicked it? How could you manage? I saw he counted them even twice, each time he put away the envelopes of those we already saw and that didn't interest us..."
"A very simple trick. Did you notice I asked him to start looking at the less valued stones, that he kept in the small wooden boxes? These, if you remember, he didn't count. Jewellers always do so in this way. I nicked there one that was rather good. Then each time he opened a new envelope, I put in that stone, that could be one of the less good of that envelope, and nicked a good one, and I did the same with the following envelope... getting each time a better stone, but when he counted the number was right... and so on. He is not a jeweller; he has to pay somebody to divide them for value, not for kind. On each envelope, you saw it, there was marked the value of a single stone and the total number, but they were not divided for kind. As the counts were right, all was all right for him. So, in just five or six substitutions, I got to take this stone... for my advice."
"But he will become aware...," Snot objected.
"Perhaps, sooner or later, if his expert will check the envelopes again. But it will be too late. With a real jeweller this trick would not work."
Snot laughed. "Good. But then I really don't know how to thank you for the help you gave me."
"You paid me the louis-d'or as we agreed, so we are even. That... and this, are enough."
"But I know what you could do to thank me. Who introduced you to Charles?" Martin readily asked with a cunning smile.
"No, not that, I explained you..." Snot answered slightly embarrassed, looking toward Claude.
"If he is not game, you are not to insist!" Claude said to his brother.
Martin readily answered him, "You always insist with girls, even if they say no!"
Snot smiled and, thanking them again, said goodbye and left them to continue their discussion. With a fast pace he reached the Blade's house. The man was eating.
"Well, Blade, I found some money for the documents. What did you do meanwhile?"
"I twiddle my thumbs, don't worry. An' 'bout the papers, I'll get you real ones, not faked. Just tell me the names you want on 'em."
"Real? How's that possible?"
"A mate a mine works as clerk-copyist where they make the passes at the Commissariat. What names has he t' write?"
"Marc and Luc Teissier. We want to pass as brothers."
"All right. For the other data... he will invent 'em. How many coins did you scrape up?"
Snot pulled out from under his clothes the small parcel he had prepared and opened it on the table.
"Fuckin' heaven! In so little time... how did you manage t' get all this money?"
"They are all my savings," Snot said.
"Stolen?"
"No, earned. I hid them, I just went to fetch them."
"Well, sorry, I didn't want t' offend you. For sure they be enough for the expenses I have t' do, an' possibly some will be left."
"When are you going to get the papers?"
"After eatin', I'll go t' tell him the names. I think that he can make them for tomorrow. Aren't you hungry?"
"A little," Snot answered sitting at the table while Félicie put in front of him a steaming plate and the Blade picked up the gold coins.
After eating, the Blade went out, together with Félicie. Snot, now alone, lay down on the pallet, his hands under his head and, gazing at the shadows of the candle's flame on the ceiling, he started to think, in patient wait for the two. He was so for a few minutes, when the door slowly opened and from behind the leaf peeped out Rene's head.
Snot, surprised, sat up. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I followed you. I hoped you would come out again. Then I saw your parents leaving..."
"They are not my parents, just friends. But why did you follow me, what do you want?"
"Nothing," the boy answered going to the pallet and sitting on its edge.
Snot looked at him, his hands leaning behind himself to support him. Then Rene put his hand between Snot's thighs and fingered there, without a word.
"Come on, stop it. I told you I make love only with my Marc, didn't I?" Snot said, but not sharply.
The boy continued to finger there. "I'm not asking you to do something... I'll do all..."
Snot laughed but pulled away the boy's hand. Then Rene opened his old fabric breeches and, baring his groin, started to touch his own swollen genitals, which became even harder as his member rose in ready answer.
Snot looked between the boy's legs, than at his face and said, "You already are a man, there. But now, stop it."
"Don't you like it?"
"Yes, I like it. If I was not with Marc, I'll even give you a good press..."
Rene stood up and his breeches slipped down to his ankles. Continuing to slowly masturbate, he turned his back and said, "Look what a nice ass I have... Don't you feel like visiting it?"
"Stop it, come on! Don't be silly!"
Rene, as an answer, pulled off his shirt and started to caress his body with lascivious moves. He looked at Snot and noticed that he had a noticeable erection tenting his breeches.
So he smiled and said, "You see, yours too hardened. He awoke and feels a yen for my little ass... and I want to give it to your rod..."
Rene kicked away his breeches and, now completely naked, went to the pallet and crouching down, tried to open Snot's breeches. Snot seized his wrists and blocked him, but Rene tried to free himself and to touch him, so that soon they were gripping each other, wrestling. Rene was laughing with amusement. Snot was feeling half annoyed, half aroused. That struggle did increase Snot's excitation. The boy succeeded in unfastening the laces of Snot breeches and in the rough tossing of the two bodies, Snot's member peeped out erect and throbbing.
Suddenly Snot stopped fighting, seized with some rudeness the boy, and lay him on the pallet on his belly. Freeing himself from his breeches, he went on top the boy. At once Rene pushed up his small ass, greedily offering it to the older boy, so that when Snot went down on him, he sank in him almost without meeting any resistance in only one thrust. Rene lightened in a triumphant smile, barely dimmed by a painful grimace for the violence with which the young man started to mount him. Raising a little more his pelvis, Rene was able to bring his hand to his own member to masturbate himself, increasing so his own pleasure. Snot, firmly holding the boy by his waist, continued to hammer inside him with fury, jolting the entire body of the boy with each of his thrusts. Rene yelped and squeaked in happiness, deeply enjoying that wild ride.
Reaching at last the peak of pleasure, Snot unloaded inside him with big thrusts, strong and slow, moaning his pleasure at each broadside of his seed that he fired in the hot and tight deepness of the boy. Then also Rene reached his orgasm and unloaded on the pallet, shutting his eyes to better savour the sensation he was feeling.
When Snot moved away from above him, the boy turned to look at him with a bright smile and said, "You liked it, didn't you?"
"I had a good orgasm."
"Like with your boyfriend?"
"No. With him I make love. You... I just screwed you."
"I loved it. You are a wonderful fucker. You are strong."
"Now dress up and leave. My friends could be back any moment," Snot said gloomily while he slipped on his breeches.
Rene got up off the pallet and dressed. "Are you mad at me?" he asked.
"No. I'm mad at me. You are not Marc."
"Well, come on... I didn't take away nothing, to your Marc. I just gave you some vent..."
"Go, now. Leave me in peace."
Rene pouted and left. However as soon as he was outside, he opened in a wide satisfied smile and, trotting and happily whistling, went toward his house looking for Martin to tell him how he managed to conquer that beautiful young man that turned on both of them so much...
Snot, again alone, was thinking about what had happened. He didn't feel remorse, just annoyance. He would never have thought that it could be so easy for somebody to make him do what he wanted. Possibly, it was also because for several days he had had no chance to relieve his needs, he thought. But then, he could have done it alone, by himself, and not with that lad. He took too little seriously that Rene! Sure, he had been skilled. And how did he rock under him, how did he make his welcoming hole palpitate around his rod pounding in him! He was really a little sow, that boy, he concluded to himself. If that boy worked for Roland, he would have had a great success, beyond any doubt!
He was immersed in these thought, a little irritated, a little amused, when the Blade came back.
"Tomorrow yer papers be ready, an' the day after I'll go t' meet that guy who be likely t' get out yer paramour from gaol," the man said to Snot, sitting on his pallet.
"It seems all even too easy...," the youth man murmured, but he was happy.
"No, not at all easy! It be all so fuckin' hard, but you find in me the right man. An' t' think that you don't show not even a bit a gratitude for yer first man..."
"You really don't give up hoping to take again my ass?"
"Sure I don't! I never screwed a young man like you be now, an' I'd like t' give it a try, just once. If not for other reasons, just t' check the difference from when you were a brat t' now."
"I'm already paying you with my house and I gave you many gold coins. We are even, then."
"But when you were a kid, you liked being my bottom."
"No, it's not that I liked it."
"But you never made fuss."
"It's not either I disliked it. You just did it, that's all. And then, if even I refused, you'll have taken me all the same, right? So..."
"But with yer paramour, be you the top or be him?"
"I already told you to mind your fuckin' business, didn't I?" Snot said dryly.
The Blade laughed, "You become more shy than a little virgin girl. What's wrong if you just tell me?"
"It is our business. You have nothing to do with it."
"Oh, yeah, I forgot you be in love...," the Blade said laughing with amusement. Then, seeing Snot's hard glance, he became serious again and added, "Come on, I be just jestin'. After all I'm helpin' you t' take him out a trouble, am I not? I'm busyin' myself for you an' him, don't I?"
"Yes, sorry. It is that... I'm so nervous. Do you think you really can get him out?"
"I really think so. When Félicie comes... don't tell her I tried again with you, agreed?"
"Sure," Snot answered and lay down to sleep.
On the following morning, the Blade went to see again Sévion. The man told him that in the specified prison there was no prisoner called Julien de Jambville and neither Marc Teissier.
"Sévion, be you not makin' light, makin' fun a me? No boy, no Verdun in exchange, be that clear?"
"Hell, you know that we want that Verdun!"
"Yes, I know. But I also know that the boy be brought there."
"Are you absolutely sure?"
"Yes, an' I also know that he be just accused of givin' fake personal particulars, sayin' that his name was Marc Teissier an' not Julien de Jambville."
"That's strange. Nothing shows on the records. I'll go personally to do an investigation. It's too important for me to put my hands on that Verdun... Even better, you'll come with me," Sévion said and rang the bell asking for his overcoat, top hat and walking stick.
They went out together. Reaching the prison, Sévion introduced the Blade as his employee, and they both entered. The gaolers, instructed by Mégot, denied they ever heard about, or saw, the boy. Sévion controlled the books, but they had been changed and nothing showed on them.
But the Blade suggested, "Why don't you try to question the prisoners?"
"Are you crazy, Mathieu? They are tenths and tenths in here, I'll not be over in a month!"
"Oh, listen, I am not able t' read or write, but as you know the letters, you can see if amongst the prisoners there could be some who could know him. Look amongst the young aristocrats an' start with them. Youths easily gang up, right? A Verdun is worth some effort, isn't he?"
Sévion, grumbling, agreed. So, the record book in his hand, he ordered the wardens to bring in front of him, one after the other, the prisoners he chose. At the sixth attempt, it was Alexander's turn.
"Sit down, Alexandre Varenne. Did you by chance met the citizen Julien Jambville?"
"Yes, citizen, when I was serving at the Court."
"In here, I mean. Inside this prison. Did you meet him, or even just see him?"
Alexandre kept silent. He knew that Mégot had made all tracks of his friend disappear. He heard that from a warden with whom he had sex. On one side he would have liked to help Julien, but on the other side he was afraid that if he did so, Mégot could take revenge on him, as he was powerful at least as his lover Maximilien. So he was wavering. This indecision made the Blade suspicious.
"You met him here, in this prison, right?"
Alexandre had an imperceptible jolt, then looking at Sévion, he said, "A prisoner... if he talks he is wrong... if he keeps silent, he is wrong..."
The Blade again intervened, "If you say the truth, you be not wrong for sure. Be there perhaps somebody menacing you, in this prison?"
Then Alexandre, always addressing Sévion, said, "If you asked the guard Charriere, he could possibly tell you interesting things, if he wants and can talk..."
"I already questioned all the guards and wardens. Not one of them admits there was a Jambville in here."
"In these days there is confusion, citizen, in France. One cannot know who is in charge, who has more power, to whom one has to answer for his deeds, and therefore to whom one has to obey. This, the simple people knows, he feels in the air. If you want somebody answer to you, you have first to put him in a safe position, I presume."
"And why it is not you to answer, if you know so many things?"
"Because I am trying to survive, citizen, and because it is difficult to survive when you are not free," Alexander answered with a sad smile.
The Blade whispered something in Sévion's ear. The man nodded.
Then he said to the young man, "Well, I see you fear something. I'll question others after you, and I'll say I found nothing, so nobody can suspect you. But give me some more elements, so I can understand how I have to move."
"Forgive me, citizen, but who tells me I can trust your word?"
"Anyway, you already compromised yourself," Sévion made him notice.
Alexandre nodded, and finally he told the two men all he knew about Julien and the judge Mégot, keeping silent just about the sexual preferences of Julien, and on the contrary he described him like a person refusing that kind of sexuality. The Blade, even though he knew how really things were, didn't belie him. Sévion, as Alexandre's exposition continued, was knitting his forehead and pensively nodding.
When Alexandre ended, Sévion said, "If it is Mégot you fear, don't worry. I have the right friends at the right levels. That outrageous judge, if your accusations prove to be right, will be at least deprived of his authority, and prosecuted. The Revolution is a serious matter and doesn't accept in its bosom depraved and corrupted men. Thank you Varenne. You will not be involved in this matter as long as Mégot is still around. You can go, now."
As promised, they continued to call and to examine other prisoners, and often also for a long time, so as not to make the time Alexander spent with them seem too long. Then they left the prison, after telling that really there was no trace of the boy, and that therefore he was possibly held in another prison.
As soon as they were outside, the Blade asked, "What d' you intend t' d' now, Sévion?"
"First of all I have to neutralize Mégot, so that he can menace no more anybody. Then, this done, we will make that Charriere sing, and we will find the boy... if he is still alive."
"Can't you call immediately the guard? Who gives a shit 'bout the judge? The most important thing now be to find the Jambville, right? An' then, if you find him, you have also a more than good proof against the judge."
"No. First Mégot has to be neutralized. If, as I fear, Varenne's accusations are founded, that man makes me sick, disgusts me. And then, when he will know that Mégot is under custody, the guard will talk a lot more easily."
"How long will it take?"
"I'm going at once at the Public Health Committee. Show up at my place tomorrow."
They parted. The Blade, going back home, paused to fetch the two passes for the boys, met a couple of people with whom he had business pending, and then went back home. He was asking himself if he had to tell Snot all he came to know about his boy -- how he had been raped, how he had been practically kidnapped by the judge... But he thought it was useless to put him in agitation and to make him feel bad and worried.
So, he gave the boy the two passes and told him that in a few days possibly his lover would be freed.
Snot snorted, "You always say tomorrow, soon, but the day passes. Perhaps, possibly... But never something certain!"
"I told you, it be not an easy thing as you think it. Taking out a prisoner! It be not like churnin' out loaves a bread, you know?!"
"Yes, sorry, Blade, but I am upset. Are you sure these passes are good?"
"Sure, not even the Holy Virgin in person could know they be fabricated. The stamps, the signatures, the paper... all be regular, true, authentic, not forged. Just your names an' particulars be false, but that, if it be not you to tell, who can say?"
"Did some coins remain?"
"No... on the contrary, he wanted more..." the Blade started, then added, "It be not true, I tried to cheat on you. Keep, these remained. May I die on the spot! Am I not becomin' honest, by chance?"
The real reason why the Blade didn't have the heart to cheat on Snot was that, inside his heart, he feared that Julien was no longer alive. In fact it seemed incredible to him that the judge had been so careful to make all traces of the boy disappear if it was just to screw him. Félicie, who deeply knew her man, understood that there was some problem, so, with the pretext she needed help outside, made him leave the room and tell her everything.
"You did good not t' tell the boy. He would have lost his head, he be too much in love. D' you know that I feel for him much tenderness? He be a good boy, an' I hope that this story will have a good end. You'll do all you can, d' you promise me?"
"Yeah, don't worry. Not even for my son I could d' more."
"Ah, now he be like a son for you? You who be just longing t' screw his ass? Will you try also with your son?"
"They are all lies, I didn't try with him, he is a liar!"
"No, you betrayed yourself... the boy says you didn't try with him, but I know you too well. An' anyway I think you'll be able t' try even with your child. That's why I don't want children from you!"
The Blade laughed, and went inside again, followed by Félicie.